Abstract
Most previous research has shown the negative influence of role ambiguity on employes’ motivational process. This has led to role ambiguity being perceived as a main hindrance demand in the workplace, with a negative effect on the Job Demands Resources (JD-R) model’s motivational process. Recent theories propose that job demands can be perceived by employes as a challenge, rather than a hindrance. However, there is little evidence on which elements of the organizational context shape this perception. The objective of this study is to elucidate the possible effect of performance recognition from the team leader on employes’ interpretation of role ambiguity as a hindrance or a challenge. Data were obtained from 706 employes of a multinational company headquartered in Almería, Spain. Results confirmed that performance recognition moderates the effects of role ambiguity: specifically, performance recognition changes the effect of role ambiguity on engagement from negative to positive and reduces role ambiguity’s negative influence on extra-role behaviors.
Highlights
Work contexts include both positive and negative elements
The objective of this research is to analyze the conditions in which role ambiguity influences employes’ extra-role behaviors through engagement, examining how the relationship between role ambiguity and engagement is moderated by performance recognition from the team leader
Mediation and moderation analyses were conducted to estimate direct and indirect influence using the non-parametric bootstrapping procedure in the PROCESS package (Hayes, 2013). As this specific conceptual model is covered in PROCESS, we followed Hayes’ suggestion by first conducting a multiple-step mediation analysis of the influence of role ambiguity on extrarole behaviors (Model 4 in PROCESS) with work engagement as the mediator and performance recognition as the moderator (Model 7 in PROCESS)
Summary
The Job Demands Resources (JD-R) theory (Bakker and Demerouti, 2017) defines job demands as aspects of work that require effort and entail physical and psychological costs for the worker. Research on demands has focused on their role in the process of health deterioration (e.g., broken psychological contract, sickness absence) (Vantilborgh et al, 2016), but there is little evidence on how job demands influence the motivational process (Bakker and Demerouti, 2017). Scholars such as LePine et al (2005) claim that job demands can play a motivating role.
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